Our Winter Book

Zespół Szkolno-Przedszkolny w Bestwince Magdalena Kraus

It was a beautiful winter's day. Together with my friends, I went to the forest to leave food for the animals. Michael had the carrots, I had the acorns and Karl had the hay for the deers. As I walked deeper into the forest, I suddenly noticed a large box. The box was covered with snow, closed with a padlock. We were all wondering, what could be in it ...
Could it be a treasure? …

Dječji vrtić Travno, Zagreb, Croatia; Romana Rašić

We tried opening the box but the padlock was locked. There was no way to open it without a key and we couldn’t find it. We almost gave up when we heard someone coming. It was a deer and a rabbit that had come for the food that we brought to them.
The deer asked: “Oh, you are still here, we thought that you had left. What are you doing?”
Michael said: “We were leaving you food when we found this box. It is locked and we can’t find the key.”
“Do you know where it is?” asked Karl.
“Of course we know. It’s in the squirrel's house, but she is still hibernating.”

Leticia Barco, CEIP Ciudad de Nara, Toledo. Spain

It was very cold and it was still freezing at night. The ground was covered in snow and it was difficult to find the way to the squirrel's house. Mr. Owl, who was the most intelligent creature in the forest, came out from his tree hole house. “What is all that noise?”, he asked.
“We need to find the squirrel's house”, I replied, “but as the ground is all covered in snow, we do not know which path we must follow”, and we are afraid Mrs. Squirrel is hibernating.

Mr. Owl thought for a while and he said: “You will need the help of The Spring Fairy. She is the one who will order the Winter to finish and the Spring to begin”.

The Owl continued saying: “Follow this stream and you will get to the magic waterfall. There, you will hear the beautiful voice of the fairy singing and playing her harp. She will tell you when the Spring will begin and the Squirrel will wake up”.

After that, Michel, Karl, the reindeer, the rabbit and I happily started our walk to the waterfall by the stream.

GBS the Chrystal, Leusden, The Netherlands, Karin van der Steen

After walking for a while in the direction the owl had pointed us, we did indeed arrive at a waterfall. Unfortunately, we didn't hear any music from the harp and no beautiful song from The Spring Fairy.

We also didn't see a house for the Spring Fairy to live in. For a moment we became discouraged. Now we had walked all this way to ask for help, and now there was no fairy in sight!

What were we supposed to do now? How could we find the fairy? Where should we start? All we saw was a mountain and a waterfall!

Suddenly, Michel saw a kind of loose stone in the mountain. He wanted to take it, but it turned out to be a button. When he pressed it, the waterfall suddenly stopped flowing and a door appeared! We had found the Fairy's house!

Diana Maria Codrean Gordan, Gradinita cu program prelungit Lumea copiilor, Cluj-Napoca, România

We were all standing in front of a beautiful stone carved door. We had never ever seen such an amazing house. As we approached to knock, we heard a blurred music.
,,It's the harp music, said Karl, just like Mr.Owl told us!”
,,Let's knock! dared Michael.”
We all came close to the door and I knocked two times. The next thing something magical happened: the big, heavy door opened and in front of us appeared one of the most beautiful Fairies, all dressed in flowers, buds and green leaves. The smell of spring was everywhere, and the harp music just made us happy, joyfull.
“Spring Fairy, we have come to ask you if it's time for you to come outside and wake all the nature and animals up. We have to find the squirrel's house in order to get the key for our mysterious box we found in the forest.”

Dječji vrtić Travno, Zagreb, Croatia; Antoneta Komarica

Spring Fairy listened to our wish, but she didn’t answer right away. Instead, she invited us into her house, and we followed the music of joy and the smell of spring. As we went inside, the beautiful stone door closed. In her house was the big garden and everlasting spring. She let us touch whatever we wanted, reminding us that we always must take care of everything and leave things as we found them.
It was magical and we almost forgot our quest. Michael asked again. Spring Fairy looked at him gently and said: “You cannot rush the spring and I cannot go out before the right moment, or my wings could freeze. Come again in three weeks and you can help me wake up the spring. You drank my flower tea, so you became my helpers!”